Urban Adventures & More

I was totally not expecting to do yesterday’s ride. I just went out for some fresh air, and found myself a couple hours later in Red Hook. However, along the way, I realized I have been developing what I am tentatively calling “New York’s Most Beautiful Spots”. Currently on the list is Roosevelt Island (in the “Places to Be” Category) and Inwood Hill Park (in the “Seclusion and Beauty” Category). New entries:

• 25th Street Pier in the Hudson River Park, for its view in all directions, including the Empire State, Starrett-Lehigh, Jersey City, Verrazano, Statue of Liberty, and George Washington Bridge, as well as being a great addition to the park itself.
• East River Bridge Pedestrian Paths, for the vistas, perspectives of the city and the bridges themselves. (See below for more.)
• At the foot of the Brooklyn Pier of the Manhattan Bridge, for vistas. You can see all three of the southern east river bridges, midtown, downtown, and the waterfront. It would be a beautiful spot to be as well if not for the constant rumbling of subway trains over the bridge. (See below for more)
• Red Hook Waterfront, particularly the Lous J. Valentino Park Pier, for vistas. Here you feel as though within spitting distance of the Statue of Liberty; Manhattan rises behind Governors Island, and the entire area feels like a sleepy seaside town (on the weekend at least, when the port is closed).

The route I took was very straightforward, so I won’t even provide a map; I puttered around Manhattan for a while, and then went over the Manhattan Bridge into Brooklyn.  I followed the signs down to the Waterfront in DUMBO (a cute place in itself). I then walked through the park that extends between the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges, a couple of fiercely defended acres of green just above the river. In that park, there was a wedding being held despite the constant disruptive rumble of subway trains overhead (so much so, you couldn’t hear the string quartet). Several other couples took wedding photos here, and more still on the pier to the south of the Brooklyn Bridge. (I think these staged photos are a machination of the wedding industry, as though your marriage will be sweeter for the photos you schlepped out to take in front of some landmark.)

I then got back on the bike and rode beneath the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway south and parallel to the waterfront beneath Brooklyn Heights. Although it is not marked as a bike path on the official maps, Furman Street is a great route on the weekend (I imagine it is quite crowded during the week, but yesterday it was nearly devoid of cars; I rode it with and against the traffic). It abuts fenced-off and derelict waterfront property, but also offers an evolving picture of southern Manhattan as you move from a dead-on view at the Brooklyn Bridge to a more-and-more oblique and southerly view when you reach Red Hook and now look on at State Street. I believe this is also the site of the future much-expanded, controvertial Brooklyn Bridge park. In fact, the park is scheduled to open at Atlantic Avenue and Columbia Street in the fall of this year.

I continued south from Furman along Columbia Street. The separated bike path was a nice gesture there, but it was crowded with homeless people and abruptly ended in dirt (to the loud report of my squeaking  brakes) when it turned onto Degraw Street. After that, I just followed the streets that stayed closest to the waterfront, namely Imlay, Ferris, Van Dike, Reed Streets. The environment along this entire route continues to be industrial, however Carroll Gardens and Red Hook proper, along Columbia and Van Brunt (southern part) and Richards Streets are quite pleasant and have that small-town feel I keep mentioning.

My favorite view of the ride was first glimpsed at Wilcott Street through a chain-link fence. Governors Island is only a few hundred feet across the water, with the canyon walls of Manhattan peeking over behind it, and the Statue of Liberty close enough to grab, it seems. The view is slightly different but still excellent at Valentino Park a few blocks down. It happens that Valentino Park is also the western end of a chain of pedestrian waterfront areas that seems to extend all the way to the Columbia Street Esplanade.

Unfortunately, I can’t comment on those as once I reached Conover Street I realized I had to be home in an hour or less to get read for dinner. This made for a very exciting, energetic ride back the way I came, across the Brooklyn Bridge, and up Hudson Street, 8th Avenue, 10th Avenue and all the way home, covering the 12.5 miles in 50 minutes or so, all along the streets. (I wonder if I could have done better if I had hit the Hudson Greenway; I think not, since although I lost a few minutes to traffic lights and turning cars, the greenway path is generally busy enough that you can’t hit 20 mph+). As I ascended the Brooklyn Bridge, I saw a beautiful view of Midtown from roughly 1/3 between the towers, on the Brooklyn side: the low hoodoos of the East Village and Southern Midtown sat in front of the towering pillars of Midtown proper. Also on the return ride, I discovered the off-street bike lane (clearly marked on the official version) on Hudson Street and 8th Avenue; this was a blissful part in which aggressive cars were the least of my worries, and clueless pedestrians were all of them. (I have been saying they are the biggest threat to a biker, since they have no clue of your stopping distance!)